or those whom vanity or interest make the followers of ministers, concerning the neceffity of confidence in our governours, and the prefumption of prying with profane eyes into the receffes of policy, it is evident that this reverence can be claimed only by counfels yet unexecuted, and projects fufpended in deliberation. But when a design has ended in mifcarriage or fuccefs, when every eye and every ear is witnefs to general discontent, or general fatisfaction, it is then a proper time to dif entangle confufion and illuftrate obfcurity, to fhew by what causes every event was produced, and in what effects it is likely to terminate; to lay down with diftinct particularity what rumour always huddles in general exclamation, or perplexes by indigested narratives; to fhew whence happiness or calamity is derived, and whence it may be expected; and honeftly to lay before the people what inquiry can gather of the past, and conjecture can eftimate of the future." Here we have it affumed as an incontrovertible principle, that in this country the people are the fuperintendants of the conduct and meafures of those by whom government is administered, of the beneficial effect of which the present reign afforded an illustrious example, when addresses from all parts of the kingdom controuled an audacious attempt to introduce a new power fubverfive of the crown. A still stronger proof of his patriotick spirit appears in his review of an "Effay on Waters, by Dr. Lucas;" of whom, after defcribing him as a man well known to the world for his daring defiance of power, when he thought it exerted on the 1756. tat. 47. 1756. tat. 47. fide of wrong, he thus fpeaks: "The Irish minifters drove him from his native country by a proclamation, in which they charged him with crimes of which they never intended to be called to the proof, and oppreffed by methods equally irresistible by guilt and innocence. "Let the man thus driven into exile for having been the friend of his country, be received in every other place as a confeffor of liberty; and let the tools of power be taught in time, that they may rob, but cannot impoverish." Some of his reviews in this Magazine are very fhort accounts of the pieces noticed, and I mention them only that Dr. Johnfon's opinion of the works may be known; but many of them are examples of elaborate criticism, in the most masterly ftyle. In his review of the "Memoirs of the Court of Auguftus," he has the refolution to think and fpeak from his own mind, regardless of the cant tranfmitted from age to age, in praise of the ancient Romans. Thus: "I know not why any one but a school-boy in his declamation fhould whine over the Common-wealth of Rome, which grew great only by the mifery of the reft of mankind. The Romans, like others, as foon as they grew rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption. fold the lives and freedoms of themselves, and of one another." Again, "A people, who while they were poor robbed mankind; and as foon as they became rich, robbed one another." In his review of the Mifcellanies in profe and verfe, published by Elizabeth Harrifon, but written by many hands, he gives an eminent proof at once of his orthodoxy and and candour. "The authours of the effays in 1756. profe feem generally to have imitated, or tried to Etat. 47. imitate, the copioufnefs and luxuriance of Mrs. Rowe. This, however, is not all their praife; they have laboured to add to her brightness of imagery, her purity of fentiments. The poets have had Dr. Watts before their eyes; a writer, who, if he ftood not in the first clafs of genius, compenfated that defect by a ready application of his powers to the promotion of piety. The attempt to employ the ornaments of romance in the decoration of religion, was, I think, first made by Mr. Boyle's Martyrdom of Theodora ; but Boyle's philofophical studies did not allow him time for the cultivation of ftyle; and the completion of the great defign was referved for Mrs. Rowe. Dr. Watts was one of the first who taught the Diffenters to write and speak like other men, by fhewing them that elegance might confift with piety. They would have both done honour to a better fociety, for they had that charity which might well make their failings be forgotten, and with which the whole Chriftian world might wish for communion. They were pure from all the herefies of an age, to which every opinion is become a favourite that the univerfal church has hitherto detefted! "This praise, the general interest of mankind requires to be given to writers who please and do not corrupt, who inftruct and do not weary. But to them all human eulogies are vain, whom I believe applauded by angels, and numbered with the just.” 1756. Etat. 47. His defence of tea against Mr. Jonas Hanway's violent attack upon that elegant and popular bever, age, fhews how very well a man of genius can write upon the flighteft fubject, when he writes, as the Italians fay, con amore: I fuppofe no perfon ever enjoyed with more relish the infufion of that fragrant leaf than Johnfon. The quantities which he drank of it at all hours were fo great, that his nerves must have been uncommonly strong, not to have, been extremely relaxed by fuch an intemperate use of it. He affured me, that he never felt the leaft inconvenience from it; which is a proof that the fault of his conftitution was rather a too great tenfion of fibres, than the contrary. Mr. Hanway wrote an angry anfwer to Johnson's review of his Effay on Tea, and Johnson, after a full and deliberate pause, made a reply to it; the only instance, I believe, in the whole course of his life, when he condescended to oppose any thing that was written against him. I suppose when he thought of any of his little antagonists, he was ever justly aware of the high fentiment of Ajax in Ovid: Ifte tulit pretium jam nunc certaminis hujus, Qui, cùm victus erit, mecum certaffe feretur." But, indeed, the good Mr. Hanway laid himself fo open to ridicule, that Johnson's animadverfions. upon his attack were chiefly to make sport. The generofity with which he pleads the cause of Admiral Byng is highly to the honour of his heart and spirit. Though Voltaire affects to be witty upon the fate of that unfortunate officer, obferving observing that he was fhot "pour encourager les autres," the nation has long been fatisfied that his life was facrificed to the political fervour of the times. In the vault belonging to the Torrington family, in the church of Southill, in Bedfordshire, there is the following Epitaph upon his monument, which 1 have tranfcribed: "TO THE PERPETUAL DISGRACE "OF PUBLICK JUSTICE, "THE HONOURABLE JOHN BYNG, Esq. "FELL A MARTYR TO POLITICAL "MARCH 14, IN THE YEAR, 1757; Johnson's most exquifite critical effay in the Literary Magazine, and indeed any where, is his review of Soame Jenyns's Inquiry into the Origin of Evil." Jenyns was poffeffed of lively talents, and a style eminently pure and easy, and could very happily play with a light subject, either in profe or verfe; but when he fpeculated on that moft difficult and excruciating queftion, the Origin of Evil, he "ventured far beyond his depth," and, accordingly, was expofed by Johnson, both with acute argument and brilliant wit. I remember when the late Mr. Bicknell's humourous performance, entitled "The Mufical Travels of Joel Collyer," 1756. Atat. 47. |